Hacker Group Anonymous Hits Apple, Releasing Minor User Data

Apple became the latest target of the infamous hacker group Anonymous over the holiday weekend as user data of visitors to a website were released on Twitter.

The group of hackers, who earlier this month dumped a mountain of emails from the Arizona police website, Monday provided its Twitter fans with a link to data that included the usernames and passwords for visitors to an Apple-run survey site.

Although on Monday, the abs.apple.com site reportedly displayed an error message, Tuesday the website bore just the Apple Inc. logo.

On Sunday, Anonymous noted on Twitter it had released user data of just 27 visitors to the website, however in a thinly-veiled threat warned “Apple could be a target, too. But don’t worry, we are busy elsewhere,” according to Reuters. Weekend reports linked the activity by Anonymous to LulzSec, a security-conscious off-shoot organization of hackers. The group used a security flaw in Apple software to gain access to the site, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Apple had no comment on the hacking, according to reports. With only two dozen users affected, your data is likely safe… but how long until Apple is the target of a more aggressive hacking attempt?

About the author:

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Ryan Wien

Do not ask for the wrath of Steve Jobs… he will destroy you. This is how I imagine Steve takes the news of an Apple hacking:

Hackers don’t make threats, they hack. IF they could get into something big like the itunes customer database they would do it.

As for this site, it was an old QA survey page and apparently the 27 ‘visitors’ were actually all Apple Employees that had the access to see the raw data. But the hackers couldn’t actually access any of the data because the Apple network has the sites access locked down to only work on computers within their buildings.

So basically they are bragging about basically nothing. But they are claiming they could do something because they know that Apple gets hits for sites like this so their claims will be reported all over the place and they will look bigger and badder than they were this time

Wes

haha….awesome!

Denis Evans

Not too far from reality. Personally I would not want to get Steve off side. You want to take Apple on… Good luck!

Blake Beavers

Where can I get a bigger version of that picture?

davidk

I hope these a-holes get caught by the FBI/CIA/NSA whoever and spend the rest of their miserable lives in federal PMITA prison. They aren’t freedom fighters, they aren’t heros. THey are vandals, thugs and criminals and should be treated as such.

iHate_Is_Back

You know all you fan boys above me should really shut your mouths. The fact is if someone wants to break into something badly enough they’ll just try and try and try until they finally gain access. Considering Anonymous isn’t scared of the FBI CIA or whatever other legal organization out there I highly doubt they would quake in their boots from a 120 lbs Jobsy throwing a hissy fit. If Anonymous decides to throw it’s full weight against Apple they’ll be every bit as screwed as Sony was with LulzSec. You all seriously think Anonymous which isn’t one person or a handful of people but is an essence of 10’s of thousands if not more of renegade users can be bought down by Apple? Pfftttt oh please my wigga wake up and smell the coffee. They take one user down there’s 50 others out there ready to take his/her place. This is not a war Apple can afford to wage nor can it hope to ever win. If you guys want to keep Apple off the Anonymous hit list learn to keep your comments to yourselves and stop shining on Anonymous or you’ll wake up one day and find that the little Apple Corp that could has been hit by the rage of the faceless.

My 2 cents hate me or love me I speak the truthPeace out

Mohammad Sadegh Farahat

Apple isn’t a light tree to be shaken with these winds !

iHate_Is_Back

Neither was Sony and look how LulzSec lit a fire under their asses. You can’t stop something that’s not an organization. Anonymous is an idea and the idea behind Anonymous is they live free on the net and if someone pisses them off they’ll make them pay. Period